You’re invited, and the event is free. But please register in advance at Charlotte Center for Literary Arts. admin@charlottelit.org

Stephenson was born in a three-room plank house on a dirt road on a farm out from Benson in North Carolina’s coastal plain. But he’s no farm boy on paper. UNC-Chapel Hill (B.A. and three years of law school); University of Pittsburgh (M.A.), University of Wisconsin-Madison (PhD).

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You don’t sniff out any of that book larnin’ when you hear him sing (watch how he lures the audience into singing along) “Y’all Come,” “I’m Using my Bible for a Roadmap,” “Little White Church,” “Old Rugged Cross,” “I’ll Fly Away,” and others.